“Everyone’s got a story like this, Oliver. It’s as old as the hills.”
Therein lies the success of Simon Stone’s Aussie film Daughter. It’s packed with ubiquitous Australian images that will immediately trigger recognition and nostalgia in every Aussie audience member; from Hedvig’s scabbed knees to the Maggi noodles she makes when she gets home from school to the orange light on the Breville kettle.The cast is helmed by the kings of the Aussie screen; a silver-haired Sam Neil and a serious Geoffrey Rush.
Daughter is careful to avoid specificity and remain vague about times, dates and places. There are no names, just “out the back” and “into the city”. The film explores the slow death of a small town, the pain of uprooted lives and families moving on, and above all, the unflinching need to keep going and parents telling their children, “We’ll work it out.” It depicts an Australia that’s not often seen, an Australian inland winter characterised by an austere, chilly lake, grey skies and high winds. But even so, it’s still recognisable as Australia; the working men wear Bonds singlets and work in a logged landscape dotted with 4WDs and corrugated iron water tanks.
The characters suffer a heavy emotional toll, and the magnificence of the acting means that the audience, too, suffer their elation and their pain. The stand-out cast member is Anna Torv as a punk-haired, rebellious yet deeply sensitive teenager who’s life is about to be torn apart.
It’s a beautiful Aussie family drama for the ages, and shouldn’t be missed.
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